Javascript is disabled or not supported in your browser. JavaScript must be enabled in order for you to use WIKINDX fully. Enable JavaScript through your browser options then try again, otherwise, try using a different browser.

“[T]his chapter focuses on one particular aspect of the research, conducted with Karen Vanderheyden, which addresses the appeal of Archie comics for English language learners. In this regard, Krashen’s (1993) work in the area of free voluntary reading serves as a starting point for this research. He suggests that comic books, as a form of light reading, could be viewed as an incentive for children to read, citing Archie comics, specifically, as one of the comics that could be used in language classrooms. The appeal of Archie comics, he contends, stems mainly from its high interest content (high school context) and its accessibility (Grade 2 level of writing). In this chapter, however, we move beyond Krashen’s claims to investigate the multiple ways in which English language learners engage with Archie comics in both classrooms and communities. Thus, we are interested not only in the ways in which Archie comics facilitate language learning and the development of literacy in English, but how popular culture can serve to engage second language learners in the culture of their peers as well as in the wider target-language culture. In this spirit, as Luke and Elkins (1998) have argued, we are interested in literacy as more than the process of reading and writing; we conceive of literacy as a social practice that must be understood in the context of wider social and institutional relationships.” (202–203)